In memory of a legend

59 years ago on this day, three bullets from a 9mm beretta ended the life of one of the greatest men ever to have walked on earth. A man whose power of convictions changed the destiny of a nation.

I am an unabashed admirer of the Mahatma.

From my childhood days, I have held Gandhi in high regard. Initially, it was mostly because of what I was told in school. I must confess for a very brief period in school, I did switch over to the other side - that of Gandhi bashers (you see, talking peace and non violence were for wimps and I did not want to be one).

As I read more about this man, what struck me most was his stubbornness of holding on to a principle no matter what the odds. My respect turned into awe. He was fighting a political cause and yet today one can still find books on him in the 'Philosophy' section. It is common to hear Indians referring to 'Rama, Krishna, Gandhi and Buddha' in the same breath. Remember, the other three are generally regarded as Gods and we have a politician creeping into this list.

Christians believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins. As a non-christian, I have not been able to really comprehend that line of thinking. But when I think of Gandhi and how he was killed by someone with an outlook a lot more limited than his, I can understand what christian thought implies.

Once during a short visit to Sydney, on my way back to the Sydney Airport, I tried chatting up with the cab driver who happened to be Turkish and I mentioned about the Australia India cricket match that was being played that day. His reaction was something I least expected, he got pretty wild at cricket, cursing(using some flowery invectives) that this was a game invented by the British and questioned how as an Indian and having been subjugated by them can I still retain love for their game.

The hatred that this man had towards the British is something that I can never share. Violence always leaves a bitter relationship that persists across a much longer time period than the violence itself. Today, if Indians do not harbour animosity towards the British, it is simply because of the efforts of one man who had the courage to act different.

The India today though, still has it's moods of violence, a lot of mess that existed before continues to exist now. The silver lining is that if in spite of all the rot the Indian society is steeped in, if we can have a Gandhi coming out of it, then we must be doing something right.

In 1948 the Nobel Committee decided not to award the Nobel Peace Prize to anyone on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Gandhi not being awarded the Nobel prize is perhaps the best thing that the Nobel committee has done. Awarding him would have been like trying to measure the earth with a foot long scale.

I do believe that Gandhi was not correct in all his stands and he made his set of mistakes as well but what he did achieve and advocate were far greater than his failures.

Strength comes not from the ability to destroy but from the ability to protect and there in lies the greatness of this man.

Come back Bapu, we need you now as much we have ever needed you before...

A paradigm shift

In the corporate world of hectic activity and perpetual deadlines, it is always a challenge to keep expectations realistic and ensure that employees have some time for themselves. Work-life balance is an oft heard term to define this line between public and private time. In pursuit of this balance, some limit themselves to merely "doing their job" as defined by their roles.

Individual capability will vary but what is important is that each of us should add value to the system. Every small job well done will add that much more credibility to the system and greatly improves the quality perception about the individual and the establishment as a whole.

Perceptions (like stereotypes) are built at a micro level but are applied at the macro level. When you walk into a restaurant and the waiter at your table is rude, the conclusion that you would draw is that this restaurant is no good. One single incident by one badly behaved waiter is enough to trigger a general conclusion about the whole restaurant. What holds good for an eat-out holds good for a corporate and a country (of course the number of experiences with a corporate or within a country are orders of magnitude greater than an eatery and one single incident may not cause as much harm as it would to a smaller establishment. However the fundamentals are the same).

In effect, each of us has to realize that we do not just do a job, we create an experience for somebody else and the quality of that experience is going to determine the perception about the company that we work for and if, like me, you are in a country where work has been outsourced to, then it creates a perception about the country as well.

Work-life balance is important but keep in mind that just like your personal life, your work too is based on creating positive experiences for the people who have a stake in what you do (be it customers, your team members or anybody else). This will help build credibility about you and about the system that you work in.

We should stop looking at ourselves as defined by the roles of our jobs (say as software developers or project managers or waiters or salesmen and so on) but instead look at the kind of experience that our roles allow us to create for the stake holders. We should see ourselves as 'experience providers' and act accordingly.

This is the paradigm shift that we should bring about in ourselves.

Here goes

Finally found time to create a blog for myself. The challenge is to ensure that i post something regularly which of course nobody would care to read. Not that it really matters since I am..hmm..creating content on the Internet (according to the Time magazine is the reason why all of us internet users have been chosen as the 2006 Person of the year, which shows that they are running out of ideas as well).

If you are here because of some aimless surfing, feel free to go browse some actually useful information elsewhere. But if for some bizarre reason, you are interested in this blog, do check back occasionally.

Congrats for getting this far and thanks...